August 7, 2018
Sugata Bose speaks on the need to celebrate the 75th anniversary of ‘Azad Hind’ movement in a befitting manner
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Thank You, Madam Speaker, for allowing me to raise an interesting issue on which I think the whole House will agree with me.
Last year we observed the 75th anniversary of the ‘Quit India’ movement and I had the good fortune to speak on that occasion. This House should take note of the 75th anniversary of the ‘Azad Hind’ movement. 75 years ago on July 4, 1943 and July 5, 1943, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose accepted the leadership of the Indian Independence movement and the supreme command of the Azad Hind Fauj in Singapore.
At the beginning of the year, he was in Europe, trying to find a way to travel to Asia. He did so by doing a perilous 90-day submarine voyage between February and May of 1943. On July 4, 1943, he accepted the leadership of the Indian Independence League; he made a famous speech in Hindustani in the Catholic theatre of Singapore where he said, “ hum zinda rahein ya marein, woh koi baat nahin hai, sahi baat yeh hai, ahaem baat yeh hai, Hindustan azaad hoga”.
The next day on July 5, 1943, he said it was the proudest day of his life because he was able to announce to the whole world that India’s liberation had come into being and he gave the stirring call, ‘Chalo Delhi’. In August he was in Malaya, Thailand, Burma, electrifying Indians with his speeches; on October 21, 1943 he proclaimed the ‘Azad Hind’ government in Singapore and by the end of the year in December 1943, he was standing on Indian soil on the Andaman Islands which he renamed ‘Shahid Island’. He wanted to rename it Shahid Island’, he visited the cellular jail where you know Madam, Indian revolutionaries had suffered for decades.
So I think that the younger generation must learn about how Netaji united all the religious communities and all the linguistic groups in his ‘Azad Hind’ movement. I hope the Government will observe this 75th anniversary.
I wish to ask, through you, the External Affairs Ministry to give instructions to our missions in East and South East Asia, particularly Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Burma to observe this 75th anniversary in a befitting manner.
And finally, I want to make a very special request to you Madam Speaker. Day after tomorrow on August 9, 2018, you will be mentioning the ‘Quit India’ movement this year because it is the 75th anniversary. I would make a plea to you also to remind the House that this is the 75th anniversary of the ‘Azad Hind’ movement. Our House was not in session on July 5, 2018; it is not going to be on October 21, 2018. So, I think it will be very appropriate if all of us can together pay our homage to the martyrs of the ‘Quit India’ rebellion and also the martyrs of the ‘Azad Hind’ Fauj who gloriously kept the flag of Indian independence alive between 1943 and 1945.
Jai Hind.
